Forage, ...Ice Minnows!

As water temperatures drop, trout will definitely start putting on the feedbag! If there are minnows in a lake, trout will definitely feed on them. I once saw a fly fisherman on Twin Lakes in Manitoba fly fishing with essentially silver chenille wrapped on a hook and he was catching tiger trout quite regularly. We have several pot hole lakes with forage in Central Alberta. Some of the pin fry can be tiny but they can definitely get as large as a 5 cm. I carry lots of ice minnows from size 14 all the way up to size 8. They are easy to tie. You can tie them with Head Turner beads and then use a clinch knot to have them hang horizontally in the water or you can set up an ice minnow tied balanced. I like the balanced ice minnows the best! All you need is some black marabou and some silver chenille. I like to add silver 5 mm brill with the silver chenille to add some extra glow to the minnows.

There are lots of effective minnow patterns out there. I like the simplicity of an Ice Minnow!

Ice Minnows

Thread: UTC 140, red

Bead: tungsten 1/8 or 7/64ths

Chassis: Jig hook (sizes 8-14), pin and tungsten bead

Tail: Black Marabou

Body: silver chenille, small and silver brill, 5 mm

Ruby Eyed Ice Minnow

 

Fly Fish the "Edges!"

Do you remember how windy is was in the spring? Well it seems that we are having a repeat performance. Wind can be your friend and it can also be a real challenge to fly fish with. We have been out the last few days and the trout are definitely putting the feedbag on before that icy skin covers our pot hole lakes.

Today, Karen and I headed east a couple of hours to a reservoir. We had never been to this reservoir before but we wanted to give it a go! We brought our pram and we hoped to fly fish out of it! When we arrived, the boat launch area was closed because of construction. We could have hand bombed the pram to the water but we decided to wader up and walk the shore. Karen started out with a Glen's Leech and I tied on a Tokaryk  Special 2.0. I hooked a large tiger trout that shook off just as I was steering it to the net. Darn. The wind was amping up too! The water on the reservoir was starting to get angry!

Karen tied on a Tokaryk Special and she connected with a few very nice rainbows. I hooked a few tiger trout and then several rainbows. The other fisherman at the reservoir wanted to know what we were fly fishing with. One fisherman asked us for a couple. We gave him two and he was in business. He soon hooked a large rainbow that I am pretty sure it became dinner at his house.

The wind continued to blow harder and harder. We worked our way along the shoreline and caught lots of rainbows, several tiger trout and near the end of the day; Karen landed a decent brown trout!

Karen and I looked for promising water to probe. We found weed lines with a drop off right behind them We worked those drop offs with our Tokaryk Specials just 3 to 5 feet down below a strike indicator! We constantly had to backhand cast because of the wind direction. We were used to doing that. We luckily didn't need to bomb out long casts. Most of the other guys were trying to cast far out into the reservoir. The trout were cruising right at their feet.

I saw the same thing yesterday at Boulder Lake. The rainbows were right on the edges merely 6 or 7 feet from shore.

As water temperatures drop, the window for getting out is quickly closing! Bundle up and get out there! I don't want to think about the winter shack nasties yet!

 

Sylvan Lake Whitefish

It is election day in Alberta! Today, we are voting for Mayors, City Councillors and School Board Trustees. I hope you made a point to vote! 

After Karen and I voted, we got out to Sylvan Lake to chase lake whitefish. It was a cold day but fortunately for us, the wind was low so the 8C air temperature was just fine. We wore lots of layers and we were never cold. Once we hand launched at Palm Bay, we had to walk our pram out from shore until the water was deep enough to use our 55 thrust electric motor.  Our Muck boots were perfect for this. We set up in 7 feet of water and tied on our trusty blood worm flies and fished them one foot off of the bottom! The action over the next three hours was excellent .The whitefish were quite active. We did notice the whitefish were in shallow. We settled on our usual depth to start and we never moved all afternoon! Well our three hour fly fishing window had us back on shore at 4:30 pm. As we motored back to our car, we saw lots of lake whites in shallow water in Palm Bay. As you can see below, the water temperature is dropping fast. The fish should be putting on the feed bag!

Don't forget that many lakes in Central Alberta will close on November 1st until mid December. That includes Sylvan, Gull, Pigeon and Pine! Be sure you are acquainted with the regulations!

 

Burr! The Weather is Getting Frightful !

Karen and I managed to get out to Red Deer Fish and Game Pond for a few hours this afternoon! Pulses of showers, snow squalls and wind kept us from being settled for any length of time. ...and the water temperature, frigid! We didn't connect with very many rainbows. We did confirm that they are focussing on shrimp for their diet! As the water temperature hovers near 38F, your favourite lake may "turn over!" That means the water on the bottom will flip with the water on top because of the heavier density of the water closer to the surface. This may not happen on shallow lakes. If fall turnover does occur, it will take a few days before the lake returns to decent fly fishing!

We think we saw a well at Fish and Game that had water being pumped into the Kid's Pond. I hope this strategy will help raise the water level on the main lake in time. Time will tell!

If you get out, take lots of warm layers of clothes. "Catching" will probably slow in the coming days as the water temperature drops. The fly fishing season is quickly winding down. I hope you can get out one or two times before freeze up!

Fly tying season is close! I will be spending most of my weekend in arenas cheering on my grandkids playing hockey! Have a great weekend everyone!

Check out the water temperature today!

 

Winter on the North Fork Road-Looking for Cutthroat

Nothing about today went according to our plan but it sure was a spectacular day. We looked at the weather forecast and decided that today was a perfect opportunity to hit one of our favourite cutthroat rivers.   The weather in Nordegg was going to climb to 12C. Well the best laid plans needed to be adjusted! As we drove down the North Fork Road, the mercury bounced all over the place and the volume of snow just kept building. The road was icy but we took our time. We were not even sure we were going to even wet a line. As we pulled into our designated stop, the mercury hovered around -10C. Hmm what to do. We carried on and in a short 3km, the mercury rose to -3C. We found a place to park, rig up and go find some cutthroat trout! Well we set up nymph rods and we pulled out wiggle worms and a tiny size 20 Poison Tung (Charlie Craven). We found a dandy looking run and on the first drift I caught a cutthroat, a nice one too. We caught several as a matter of fact and when the action slowed we started to explore. We picked up several more cutties as we probed likely looking spots! We trudged through lots of snow as the sun shone brightly and the mercury climbed above 0C. As the day wore on, we found a spot with a Blue Wing Olive hatch and several trout were sipping on these tiny mayflies. Karen gladly switched to a dry fly line and caught several cutts on BWOs. That was fun to watch! We worked our way back to the truck as the action slowed. I was wondering what the North Fork Road was going to be like on the drive home. In a word or two: muddy and icy! We pulled out front of the house just at dark. After unloading, I was off to the car wash. The truck was caked in mud! 

We did not get to fly fish where we had planned but that was alright. We brought lots of cutties to hand. Wiggle worms, Poison Tung Studs(size 20), small Flashbacks (size 16), Griffiths Gnats (size18) and Rainbow Warriors (size 16) were quite productive. BWO dry flies (size 18) we also quite effective when we found a hatch!

We talked about ditching our plans for the day and head to the Red Deer River! We were both glad we stayed the course. It was a fabulous day!

Just a reminder that the bridge over the Ram River on the North Fork Road at km 24 will be closed from October 27th to November 1st for resurfacing! You will not be able to get through. You will have to travel to Nordegg, then down the Forestry Trunk Road to get back on the North Fork Road!

 

Rocky Mountain Whitefish Tool Kit

These three simple nymph patterns are winners when I step into the Red Deer River to nymph , either with an indicator or euro nymph set up for rocky mountain whitefish! I love to fish with two nymphs at a time. I sometimes try three but I usually get tangled. Rainbow Warriors size 16, Wiggle Worms (my design) and Frenchies size 14 are my go to patterns. Lance Egan is the originator of both the Frenchie and the Rainbow Warrior. Both great nymphs that rocky mountain whitefish love. Of course these three patterns are excellent for browns, cutthroat and rainbows. Be sure you have these three patterns with you when you step into the Red Deer River targeting whitefish!

I look for riffle type water when I fly fish for rockies!

Below is how I tie up a Wiggle Worm. There are lots of variations of this pattern around but I have settled on this design for now.

I use UTC 140 so I do not cut the squirmy worm material.

Tying the Balanced Silver Minnow

As I stumbled to the coffee pot this morning, the mercury was a frigid -12C. I had to look twice. Crazy cold this morning! Yesterday, I had a few hours before our house was invaded by my grandsons and their families, so I decided to tie up some Balanced Silver Minnows. I use this pattern a lot on the Red Deer River for walleye. I have had excellent success using this pattern for lake walleye and lake trout as well! You will see that I use a rabbit strip for the tail. Marabou works great too! The body is simply silver minnow dubbing and I add stick on eyes although that is probably mostly for me!

I get lots of questions about fishing this little gem. I dangle it below a strike indicator and jig it. There are places on the Red Deer River where I put it from 7-10 down. I look for structure. Rock piles, drop offs and riffle water are excellent places to look! The hits are so light too! A bump or the indicator just stopping means, set the hook!  I bet this balanced minnow would work great on the Bow River too!

Build some chassises! I like sizes 4 to 8 jig hooks, a brat nail and a 5/32nd tungsten bead!

Add the rabbit strip tail

Form a dubbing loop and add the silver minnow dubbing. Twist it up and wrap on the shank of the hook!

Add the eyes (optional)